Cyrus Teed

Cyrus Reed Teed (October 18, 1839 – December 22, 1908) was a U.S. eclectic physician and alchemist turned pseudoscientific religious leader and self-proclaimed messiah.

After 1894, the group concentrated itself in the small Florida town of Estero, seeking to build a "New Jerusalem" in that locale, peaking at 250 residents during the first decade of the 20th century.

[1] Cyrus grew up in Utica, New York, and, after leaving school at age 11, went to work on the Erie Canal as a driver of the animals that pulled the boats along.

[5] As a young eclectic physician, Teed was always interested in unconventional experiments, such as alchemy, often involving dangerously high levels of electricity.

According to this theory, human beings live on the inside of the planet, not the outside; also, the sun is a giant battery-operated contraption, and the stars mere refractions of its light.

The Koreshans built extensively, establishing a bakery, general store, concrete works, power plant, and "World College of Life" in the community.

[7] The "golden age" of the Koreshan Unity in Estero was 1903 to 1908, when they had over 250 residents and incorporated the town, its territory embracing some 110 square miles — the fifth largest area of any city in the United States at the time.

On October 13, 1906, while meeting the 1:30 pm Atlantic Coast Line train from Baltimore, a group of Koreshans got into a fight in front of R. W. Gillams' grocery store in Ft. Myers, Teed tried to break it up[9] and he was severely beaten[10] by a Marshal Sanchez, suffering injuries from which he never recovered.